In his autobiography Ungalil Oruvan, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin described the Madras Central Prison during the Emergency as a “torture camp” that echoed with wails. Accounts presented to the Justice M. M. Ismail Commission in 1977 appear to validate that grim depiction.
According to testimonies, prison staff seemed to take pleasure in humiliating detainees. “When one of them returned after a visit to Bangalore, he was made to run like a horse while being beaten,” recounted K. Vezhavendan, a former DMK Minister who later founded the Makkal DMK. He also alleged that the staff used “disrespectful language.”
‘Even refused water’
“Mr. Vezhavendan said they were not even given a bedsheet or mat. They were not given water to drink when they wanted. They were in the lock-up for 24 hours for nine days after their imprisonment till the DIG visited them. On February 2, 1976 night, he was shocked to hear shrieks and cries from other cells and the prisoners asking the staff not to beat them...The next day, the doctor, on his routine check-up, saw his condition, but he (Vezhavendan) was afraid of complaining. He was warned not to, lest more cruelty be unleashed on them. The inmates did not have a change of clothes for about eight days,” reported The Hindu on the Commission proceedings.
